Electronic devices are commonplace in our life today. They are located in our homes and offices, like PCs, and carried with us, like cellular phones. The need for a simple, intuitive and with rich functionality input methods for user interface is increasing with time. Input method in the computer environment had evolved from using simple mechanical push button keys like in a standard keyboard, to using a pointing device like mouse, track balls and many kinds of touch sensitive pads. In the PDA device environment, a touch screen with a stylus input method is very popular, while in the cellular phone environment, simple numeric keypad with a small number of additional keys and a tiny joystick is commonplace today. Touch sensitive surface, due to technology enhancement, decreased prices and its flexibility, become increasingly popular mean of user input apparatus in electronic devices. However, touch sensitive surfaces are still inferior to mechanical keys in operational feedback provided to the user. Although many devices have both mechanical keys and touch sensitive surfaces, currently those devices do not implement input methods that combine those apparatus to form a natural input method that take the advantages from both. The following invention offers several way of combining mechanical keys and touch sensitive surface together to form a family of new input methods that combine the best features of each type.